I am going to combine the toe, sole and instep from the Basic Gusset Heel Sock pattern and the instep and leg stitch patterning from the Dead Simple Lace Socks pattern.

I am just noticing, however, that there is an odd stitch at the end of the 36 stitch stitch-pattern and two between each patterning block. I may be redesigning this a little on the fly or I may try to remember to do the extra knit stitch at the start of the row on one sock and the end of the row on the other sock. Maybe it just won’t notice. I am a bit of a pedantic obsessive about this sort of thing, sadly. I want a stitch pattern that fits neatly in my 36 stitches with the same number of plain stitches before, between and after the repeats.

I have not decided whether to increase needle size as I go (like I did for my Lacy Rib Socks) but will keep trying things on. With this heel/gusset style I am less likely to need a larger needle size for the gusset/heel as I did for the Lacy Rib socks but may go up a size or two for the shin/calf.

Sometimes I really wish that this obsessive pedantry about symmetry and so on was something that I could just switch off or ignore. I cannot for the life of me work out how to make a seven stitch pattern repeat fit exactly into 36 stitches. I could view it as a 6 st repeat with an added knit st at the end but then that is 37 stitches. Hmm. That might work.

*plays with the demo of Knit Visualiser and wishes it allowed me to save*

*realises that this either works out as 37 or 35 stitches*

*wonders how best to show this to you guys here*

*takes a screen-shot and shrinks it for width*

Key:Empty chart square = knit (K) stitch.\ = SSK./ = K2tog.O = YO / yarn-over.Filled in black square within the chart square = non-existent stitch in this theoretical version of the pattern.# = the extra knit stitch at the end of each row in the original pattern that offend my pedantic obsessiveness. Yeah, I know, first world problems.

So. The top two rows (5 and 6) are as per the original pattern. The bottom two rows (1 and 2) are how it would be if I make it 35 stitches. That should be long enough to go around my foot and I can always go up a needle size if I need to. The middle two rows (3 and 4) are if I make it 37 stitches which will take some jiggery pokery with the toe stitch count but I can probably work it out by starting with 38 stitches instead of 36 and/or doing a short-row toe.

*sigh* Why do my maths skills have to have gone the way of my memory when the MonSter ate them? At least this is a little easier than the sweater that I am STILL stuck on working out the sleeve decreases…

ETA: Eureka! I have managed to noodle a stitch pattern repeat that exactly fits 36 stitches! .PDF and images of what I did are available and I may blog them later. Right now, I want to knit!